Complexity
by Rhythm.Weaver
Summary: Though others may see their lack of conflict or dramatic emotion as a sign of a simplistic give-and-take relationship, this ninja and Magic Dark Arm are much more complex. They understand each other; but it takes a lot to get to that point.  Fusion #2
1. More Than Meets The Eye

_**A/N: **_Hello my lovely readers! Sorry this took a little while to get up; I've been working on the third Fusion installment! But now you may read on!__

_BTW, for anyone who is NOT simply continuing this from my other story _Admiration, _you should go at least read the author's note at the beginning of that story. It explains what's going on, and you are about to be VERY lost if you don't get that information. Also, you may decide you would like to read _Admiration _since it is in the same compilation and written in similar style. You'll see what I mean when you check it out._

_So now: onwards!_

* * *

><p><strong>Meister<strong>: Black*Star, of the Star Clan

**Weapon**(**s**): Tsubaki Nakatsukasa

**Weapon** **Type**(**s**): Magic Dark Arm (Kusarigama, Shruiken, Ninja Sword, Smoke Bomb, Katana/ Enchanted Sword)

**Resonance** **Form**(**s**): Chain Star Formations

**Special Meister Ability**: Black*Star Big Wave

**Let's** **go!**: _"__Assassin's Rule #1 - Silence: Dissolve in the darkness and erase your breath. _

_Assassin's Rule #2- Transpositional Thinking: Analyze the target in order to predict his thoughts and movements._

_Assassin's Rule #3 - Speed: Take out the target before the target notices your presence."_

_"Let's go."_

_"Right."_

_…..._

_ "YAAAHHHOOOOO!"_

* * *

><p><strong><em>Black*Star #1: More Than Meets the Eye<em>**

_It's obvious that you're dying, dying_

_Just living proof that the camera's lying_

_~Fences; Paramore_

* * *

><p>Tsubaki sighs. She's already wondering how she's going to deal with this outrageous kid. She isn't sure she can use him the way she's been planning; he's incredibly strong, but doesn't have enough <em>sense <em>to really make any use of that power.

_I didn't have much choice, _she reminds herself, _only the weakest meisters were still available by the time I got inside._

* * *

><p>She was the only one still standing there on the abandoned walkway. She should have left long before, she knew that, but she couldn't find it in her to forsake this yelling kid like everyone else had. She had already left Masimune behind to realize, by himself, that he <em>had <em>no admirers, despite the weapon forms that were his birthright. It had been a terrible mistake, one she wished with every fiber of her being she could take back.

She knew she should be inside, finding the strongest meister in the building so that she could defeat her brother as soon as possible…but…

As he stood, addressing a crowd of fans that no longer existed—if they ever had—she could not help but see the similarities between him and her elder brother.

She'd go once this boy finished screaming about how "big" he was. Perhaps he had an inferiority complex or a contorted view of himself: he certainly didn't _look _fat to Tsubaki, but maybe that was the way he saw himself.

But that explanation didn't fit with the rest of his speech! What was with this boy?

"HOLY AM I ALONE THROUGHOUT HEAVEN AND EARTH!" He glanced at the ground as he punched his fist in the air, and then paused when he realized that only one person was left out of his entire audience.

To warn him that she planned on vacating as well, Tsubaki clapped a little. He jumped off the spike where he'd been standing and obliviously—or maybe strategically—placed himself between her and the door.

In an attempt to subtly inform him she was finished listening she commented on his speech in the past-tense. She wasn't sure she could _stand _listening to anymore when she knew her older brother whom she loved so much was out killing people for power.

"Wow. That was...amazing." Truthfully, she wasn't really sure _what _it was. She managed to take exactly one-and-a-half steps toward the door before there was a mass of energy and spiky blue hair up in her face.

"Yeeaaahhhh….?" He hesitated. "You're the first one to recognize my greatness," he admitted. "Good for you. You'll go far."

And somehow, by the end of the short dialogue, she found herself talked into staying outside to watch the rest of his "performance."

* * *

><p>They're walking out of the hallway to tour the rest of the school when she makes the mistake of wishing aloud that she had eaten something earlier. She hasn't eaten more than a bowl of rice all day.<p>

"I'll give you a Black*Star Special Tour!" her new meister yanks her down a different hallway so quickly that she's certain her feet leave the floor for a full ten seconds.

"Wait Black*Star! What are you doing?"

"Giving you _my _version of a Shibusen school tour. Don't worry, it starts with the cafeteria!" He continues to pull her at break-neck speed down the hallway.

"That's not what I'm worried about. Black*Star, please listen to me for a minute!" But the weapon girl's pleas go unheeded and her meister just laughs ridiculously.

* * *

><p>"Hey, Black*Star, please calm down for a minute! Black*Star, you have to sign the form. <em>BLACK*STAR<em>!"

"Ya-hoo! I'm too _big _for paperwork! That stuff's for little people!"

"Black*Star, I—"

"So, you're going to be Black*Star's weapon?" Tsubaki spun to face a man she hadn't noticed before. He had dark hair and toned arms, and anyone could tell he held the students' respect from the way they all waved and greeted him. None of that was what lit the frustration in the girl's heart, though. None of that was what caused her stomach to churn a bit too hard, making her just slightly nauseous.

Tsubaki's sixth sense was whispering that this man was a meister, and an exceptional one nonetheless.

She had wanted a meister like that, but all she got was this loudmouthed child who was balancing and screeching like a moron high above their heads. She bowed to the meister standing in front of her, a little out of respect, but more because she wanted to hide her face.

"Yeah…" she swallowed hard. The meister next to her gave a short, deep laugh.

"Well, good luck. I've known that kid since he was an infant, and he's always been an obnoxious, self-centered, single-minded, wild little brat." Tsubaki's heart sunk even further. All she could think about is how much she did _not _want this boy to be the one to wield her when she took on her brother.

* * *

><p>Tsubaki thought they were going to the cafeteria for her benefit, but her plate isn't the one heaped with food. Black*Star, though, is stuffing his mouth full of chicken and pork and fried rice and everything else he was able to get his hands on… and he <em>still <em>has food left on his plate.

"Are you going to eat that?" he asks, voice muffled as he speaks around the food in his mouth. He points to the little bit of salad still in her bowl. She shakes her head.

"No, I'm done. You can have it."

"Yahoo!" He takes the bowl and dumps the remainders into his mouth, and not only does he forgo a fork, but he doesn't even bothering to use his hands. She giggles a little, but stifles it quickly; she doesn't want to encourage him.

He flips his fist up, jabbing his thumb into the sky as he did when he met her this morning. The only difference is this time, it's more personal.

He really means it; he's pretty sure this partnership could work.

And she's actually amused to see why the kitchen staff cowered behind the counters when they saw him coming.

* * *

><p>"I should probably let you figure this out on your own, but I'm going to tell you flat-out; that's the kind of man I am." The man in front of her smiled slightly. "Black*Star's everything I just called him and more, but that kid's got guts and the power to back him up, and once he decides to do something there's no stopping him."<p>

"The problem is just getting him to do it?" Tsubaki asked quietly, eyes following the boy as he paced back and forth up on a wall of some sort. The man laughed again.

"Exactly," he confirmed.

"Hey, all teachers are supposed to be up front helping organize," a red-haired man—Death Scythe, Tsubaki remembered—told the man who was speaking with her.

"Yeah, I'll be there in a minute. Just let me help this kid out real quick." Death Scythe nodded and shrugged.

"Sure; better you than me," he threw over his shoulder.

* * *

><p>"Black*Star, where should I put my things once they get here?" She barely knows the boy she's sitting on the roof with. She just hopes he hasn't moved here for the orientation like she has; it will be bad for both of them if neither can provide a place to live.<p>

"Oh, you don't have an apartment or anything?" Black*Star laughs brashly. "That's okay; you'll just have to stay at my place!" She's relieved that they'll have somewhere to sleep tonight; somewhere for her to unpack and prepare for her new life.

"And where do you—" she begins to ask about _where _she'll be living for the rest of the time she's in school, but he cuts her off, dragging her back into the school to continue their tour.

* * *

><p>"Black*Star, all these people are signing up for their partners! Are you really going to be the only person lacking one?" The teacher called up to the boy still prancing around his "stage."<p>

"I don't need a weapon to beat them! I'm going to surpass God, remember? And gods don't need anyone else!" But despite his words he leapt down and, with his hands behind his head, strutted over with exaggerated self-importance.

* * *

><p>"Now it's time to look at the training rooms! Come on, Tsubaki, this is practically the best part! This is where I train to surpass God!"<p>

"Why do you want to surpass God?" she asks, concerned. He just keeps dragging her along, ignoring her for the millionth time that day.

* * *

><p>"I'll sign the paper so that she can be my weapon. I'm generous to my followers. Pretty big of me, huh Sid?" The man ruffled Black*Star's hair absent-mindedly. He isn't looking at the boy; he's looking past him to where all the teachers have gathered.<p>

"Sure, kid."

"Pretty good turn-out for my performance today! Right?" But Sid was already walking away. He didn't hear the cocky child behind him seeking approval.

Out of habit, Tsubaki spoke up to make sure the blue-haired boy wasn't feeling ignored. It was in her nature to care for people with hurt feelings.

"Of course!" she chirped.

Black*Star spun around at her words. His intense, shocked amazement was visible for only a split-second: so short a time he could have stayed like that ten times longer, and if Tsubaki had blinked once she would have missed it completely. She couldn't quite figure out why her words meant so much to him, but she filed the phenomenon away for future reference.

* * *

><p>"…And this is where all the bad people that <em>I <em>defeat are going to be held, so you should learn its halls really well."

They're in the dungeons now, and it's dark and damp. There are no rats like in the movies, but this place has an acutely depressing aura. Tsubaki ghosts silently along behind the slightly subdued Black*Star. She doesn't know why he's getting quieter and quieter as they near the rectangle of light at the end of the corridor.

For a few minutes, she's actually grateful for the break. At least, she is until she realizes the reason his feet are dragging more the closer they come to the window.

He opens the door closest to the window and steps into the room behind it, gesturing for her to follow him. When she does, she's confused. There are pictures of Black*Star all over the walls, documenting his life from infancy to now. In the beginning, each one has Sid in it, but he shows up less and less as the years pass.

"Black*Star? What is this?" _Why are there pictures of you all over these prison walls?_

"This will be our…base." _I can't bear to call it a room, much less a home; it's so disgraceful._

Tsubaki doesn't cry; she won't let herself. This boy in front of her—she's beginning to understand him now. She never believes, even for a second, that she'll ever fully understand him. But she's seen enough, now, to trust him to do things for a reason.

He has lived his life with a teacher and a dungeon cell, and when you think about that you realize he could have turned out worse. Sure, he's got some issues to work out. Who doesn't?

She'll stand by him no matter what stupid mistakes he makes while he works them out.

* * *

><p>"Alright, the star is here! Give me that dinky little piece of paper." He snatched it away from her without giving her the chance to hand it to him. She watched the line of newly paired weapon-meister teams, looking over his pointy blue spokes of hair.<p>

"Here! Have an autograph!" He shoved the meister-weapon agreement form back in her face. She looked at it, only to find his name is scrawled across the entire page, covering her careful lettering and the school's preprinted words. The weird thing was, Tsubaki noticed, that his name was written in the same ink as her precise responses; but she never gave him the pen.

She looked down at the hand she had been holding it in as she took the paper from him, just to check and make sure he didn't have a duplicate that he had used.

"Oh, yeah, and this is yours too." He tossed her the pen nonchalantly, as though he didn't realize how hard it is to swipe something, _anything, _from a member of the Nakatsukasa family.

Tsubaki was stunned. Not only had this loud, ostentatious boy managed what she would have believed impossible, but he did it while he was still in her peripheral vision. She stared at him as he grinned and threw her a cocky thumbs-up.

Maybe there was more to this meister than met the eye.

* * *

><p><em><strong>AN: **So since you all read the author's note at the beginning of this chapter and/or went back to _Admiration _and read the info at the beginning of that story, you are all familiar with my habit of talking about the chapter after it's over._

_I got this idea from the anime episode where Tsubaki says she joined the academy because of her brother. With a mindset like that, there's a REASON you take on the meister you do, I figured, but something just didn't fit. The smile we see on her face when they met, her willingness to take on a partner that's so difficult to control, just didn't seem to make sense to me. So this happened!_

_So that's it! I hope you all enjoyed Complexity chapter 1! I will now be updating regularly once more, since the story is up._

_I wish you all happiness and awesome weeks until we speak again!_

_~Rhythm Weaver~_


	2. Determination

**A/N: **_Ah! Sorry it's been so long guys! My parents have kinda cracked down on homework and school...I had some pretty bad grades and had to bring them up so I didn't have time to edit and post._

BUT NOW HERE IT IS! GOOOOOO READ!

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><p><strong><em>Black*Star #2: Determination<em>**

_I want to hold you high and steal your pain_

_'Cause I'm broken when I'm lonesome_

_~Broken; Seether_

* * *

><p>"We're doing it again. Tsubaki: kusarigama," Black*Star commanded. He was dripping in sweat, but he couldn't even remember the last time that stopped him from doing anything.<p>

"Right," Tsubaki panted, transforming. She had yet to get used to the assassin's incredible stamina. Sure, she was the Magic Dark Arm, heiress to the Nakatsukasa family's many weapon abilities and forms, but she wasn't a meister. She could wield numerous non-living weapons, but never a demon weapon.

Black*Star proceeded to run through a complex series of training maneuvers. Sid had given him one set to learn for each weapon form Tsubaki had. They required quick thinking, concentration, coordination, and cooperation between meister and weapon.

Even though neither of them would ever admit it aloud, both were certain that lack cooperation was the problem. They couldn't seem to make it through more than five steps of the kusarigama mode without Black*Star ending up tangled in Tsubaki's chain.

Or use ninja sword mode without slicing his arm with the blade.

Or use smoke-bomb mode without him having a coughing fit.

Or use shruiken mode without her arcing around to strike him in the back.

Tsubaki knew it was killing Black*Star to fail like this, day after day. She had lost track of how many nights they would stumble home, both of them completely covered in bruises: he from the weapon's direct harm; she from transforming in midair, or without being truly prepared to, in order to save his life.

They had yet to do much more than sleep and—when Black*Star stayed awake long enough to annoy Tsubaki about it— eat in the miniature house her father now paid for every month. Tsubaki had wanted—_still _wanted—to write him a thank you note for arranging for the home so quickly after he heard about Black*Star's prison-bedroom, but she never seemed to be able to stay awake long enough to do so.

"Urk!" Black*Star grunted as, once more, legs and arms were ensnared by the chain. He teetered for a weighty second before he began to fall towards the scythe blade, threatening to impale himself on impact.

He landed on an unconscious and battered Tsubaki, her long ponytail twisted gently around him. He refused to relax; he onto the image of how, seconds before, that soft hair had been an unbreakable chain nearly sending him to his death. Something like that couldn't happen in battle.

Black*Star extracted himself carefully, mindful not to yank his weapon partner's hair. He turned to rouse her so that they could try again, but what he saw stopped his hand before it reached her shoulder.

When was the last time he'd paused to look at her? He was so lucky she'd signed on to be his weapon, how could he have been so _negligent_?

How had he _not _realized the toll all this practicing was taking on her? He traced the cuts and new scars with his eyes, took stock of her bruises and how dark they were. He could see how frail she was; how underfed. They had been missing so many meals and her gaunt face showed obvious signs of it. And even though they were skipping food in preference to sleep, she had enormous dark bags that mirrored the color of the eyes they sagged beneath. All of this because he kept pushing, pushing, pushing. He could hear his voice echoing in the vacant gymnasium.

_"Again. Tsubaki: kusarigama."_

_"No breaks. Let's go, ninja sword mode."_

_ "Come on, Tsubaki, get up! How am I going to surpass God with you just sitting on the floor like that?"_

She had always transformed for him, always gotten up when he asked it of her.

He stood and bent over, gathering her softly in his arms. He jogged home, keeping his breathing steady and his pace smooth the whole way. Even after his shoes began to _squish _with sweat, he didn't slow down—he wasn't about to stop training just because Tsubaki was done. It was his duty to stay in shape, his dream to transcend even the gods, and you can't do that if you skimp on practice.

He laid her down on her bed when they got home, placing her on top of the covers as gently as he could. It was summer, and he knew better than to put her under the blankets.

"I swear I'll be a better partner from now on," he whispered to the unhearing girl. Then he went off and worked on his martial arts.

* * *

><p>The next day, Tsubaki drug herself to school. She was utterly embarrassed for passing out in the middle of training, but Black*Star hadn't brought the subject up so neither did she. She did notice, however, that when Black*Star entered the classroom with a bang and a shout about his greatness, it was diluted. He was far less of a handful than usual as they walked to their seats, in front of their friends'.<p>

They were friends with two other weapon-meister teams in this class. Kari, demon club, and Locke, her meister, were almost disgustingly obvious with their romantic relationship. They weren't being so bad right now, Kari was only sitting on Locke's lap, but Tsubaki had heard far more than she wanted to from those two.

She hoped _she _would never be the most lustful in her group of friends.

And then there was Lee-Anne, demon dagger, and Penny. They bickered, a _lot, _but they were insanely inseparable. It was unthinkable that you'd see one without the other.

"Hey guys!" Tsubaki leaned forward to join the girls' conversation while Black*Star dozed. He didn't seem to mind having a simple friendship with Locke, and often the two boys would just sit in silence or mutter a few words before parting ways.

The girls looked at each other meaningfully before responding.

"Hi Tsubaki," a couple of them responded in unison. It was like this more and more often, but Tsubaki never got used to it. She hated days where they acted this way.

"Oh, well, I've got to study for the test today. Just wanted to say hello." Penny nodded her head in acknowledgement of Tsubaki's excuse and Lee-Anne flipped her hair imperiously over her shoulder. Kari had yet to even glance at her.

Tsubaki turned back to the front of the room, resting her head on the table, close to tears. She was still exhausted, and now she had to deal with her friends' rejection? The only reason she was even in school was because of Black*Star. She didn't want him to skip school to stay home with her, and he wouldn't learn anything if she wasn't there.

The school day passed all too quickly, and she couldn't hide behind her meister any longer. He was in the bathroom, and she was waiting outside in the hallway, praying that they wouldn't find her.

But they did.

Of course.

"Hey Tsubaki, heard you couldn't handle your own weapon form last night." Lee-Anne laughed sardonically. _How did she find out? _Tsubaki couldn't imagine Black*Star telling anyone, but then who _had _told her?

"Yeah, I heard you passed out while your meister was still trying to train. How does it feel to be that incapable of…well, of anything?" Kari rolled her eyes as she ran her fingernail along the arm Locke had wrapped around her.

"You know what? I bet Black*Star isn't the reason they keep failing. It's Tsubaki; Black*Star's too great a meister. It's got to be her fault." Penny commented snidely.

"No, that's not it at all! We've been training a lot, and I was just really tired! I've got too many weapon forms, and—" a hand on her shoulder cut her off.

"You don't need to explain yourself to people who are smaller than you, Tsubaki." Black*Star moved in front of her, putting himself between her and the "friends" in front of them.

"Look man…" Locke started, but Black*Star wasn't in the mood to let him finish.

"Don't. Even. Try." he growled. It worked, and Locke stopped talking.

"Black*Star, chill. We weren't even _doing _anything." Penny snorted delicately. She opened her mouth to speak again, but she didn't get the chance.

"And what would you consider 'doing something,' Penny?" he demanded. She didn't speak, but at the menacing tone of Black*Star's voice, she did automatically hold her hand out for Lee-Anne to transform. She stared at him defiantly from behind the blade.

He shoved his face even closer, risking the girl striking out with her weapon in an attack that even he wouldn't be able to block quickly enough.

"I said, what have you been doing to Tsubaki, you infinitely little piece of scum?" She still refused to answer, but she did slide backwards, away from him, much to Black*Star's vindictive satisfaction.

"Tsubaki, kusarigama." The assassin child muttered. Tsubaki looked at him fearfully.

"We can't fight with that yet!" she whispered fretfully. Black*Star shook his head at her words.

"I'll do it, Tsubaki; I can do anything. You'll see. So now I'll ask just one more time: Tsubaki, kusarigama." It was the closest Tsubaki had ever heard to him saying "please."

"Right!" She was determined to mirror his confidence. If that's what he wanted to base this fight on, then that's his choice as meister; now, as weapon, it was her duty to follow his lead. She _will _make the kusarigama mode work, and she willdo it _now_.

"Hie-yah!" Black*Star spun to deflect Lee-Anne as Penny stabbed out with the blade. He landed a sharp blow to the meister's wrist before he hit the ground again, but stumbled as the chain moves where he was not expecting it to.

"Let's take this outside," Locke instructed Penny. Kari, his weapon, couldn't transform in the hall; she was too large and bulky. Trying not to be herded, but unable to find any way out of it, Black*Star continued to slash at Penny, glaring, as she drew him outdoors. As soon as they made it out, Kari was also able to transform.

The demon club was in her weapon form in an instant and Locke attacked, flying across the gap to join Penny. Black*Star easily knocked the wind from him by applying a strong side-kick to the club-meister's stomach. He collapsed, and the dark assassin turned his attention to the dagger coming up on his side.

He skipped to the side, avoiding the across-slash that Penny aimed at his torso. He pulled Tsubaki up to block, but her chain gathered around his foot. Without hesitation, the quick-thinking meister called to his weapon.

"Tsubaki, Smoke Bomb mode!"

She exploded out into impenetrable clouds of cream-colored fog. She could feel everyone in the smoke because they were touching _her, _for she _was _the smoke. She felt Black*Star roll away at the last second, and she sensed Penny's stab as she tackled empty air.

And then, on the other side of the opaque fog, she felt her meister double over a split-second before she heard his wracking coughs. A forgotten component to the battle stopped, listened, and stalked silently towards the sound, any footsteps drowned out by Black*Star.

"Black*Star! Behind you!" He barely managed to spin away and catch Tsubaki as she transformed back into a kusarigama, placing her between himself and Kari as Locke swung her down in club-form, trying to smash him.

"Sorry, I can't let you do that," Black*Star casually informed, and slammed his weight against the opposing force, so that they flew backward. "You see, I'm too big to be crushed into little pieces!" He whipped around to face the last team still standing. Now that he was in full visibility, he couldn't run from them any longer. They'd already played the smoke-bomb mode trick, and the other team knew now that all they would have to do would be wait and listen for Black*Star to start coughing.

"Watch closely, Tsubaki." An image of Lee-Anne reflected through the dagger's blade as the two meister sized each other up. "This is how weapons are _supposed _to work with their meisters."

"Shut up!" Black*Star soared through the air, ready to pummel the pair in front of him to a pulp. And somewhere, in his rage, he and Tsubaki found what they had lacked all along.

It wasn't some complex, intricate thing that needed deciphering. It wasn't ancient Egyptian voodoo or anything like it.

It was, in the very sense of the word, simplicity. It was simple friendship and general acceptance. They were _not _going to be able to predict the other's next move, so they had to just take everything as it came.

Neither Tsubaki nor Black*Star really understood what happened next. They both came back into themselves and out of the Black*Star_and_Tsubaki all-in-one being right around the time that Penny fell to the ground, defeated.

Black*Star waited a couple of seconds before holding Tsubaki out to transform.

"Come on," he stuck his hands behind his head and sauntered off. He didn't need to check and make sure Tsubaki was coming, he knew she was. He had a lot more confidence in their bond now that he had worked so close to her soul. "Let's go find you some new friends."

Tsubaki giggled.

"Not just me, Black*Star. You need some friends too." Black*Star looked at her sideways, betraying nothing.

""kay…" he kept walking.

True to his word, though, Tsubaki found herself with two amazing friends by the end of the week, and she didn't even know how or when she had made them. But best of all, Black*Star enjoyed hanging out with them too. So even though the bookworm named Maka and her musically-talented "cool" scythe named Soul were tremendously different from their old friends, Tsubaki couldn't have felt more at ease.

And now she finally felt like she could finally call herself her meister's weapon. They could fight with her kusarigama mode, and she was sure the rest would come easily now that they held the key.

* * *

><p><em> Many years, and one soul, later, Black*Star stands on top of Lord Death's mirror. <em>

_ "Thanks to that soul we bagged, Tsubaki's got a brand-new mode! Let's show 'em, Tsubaki!"_

_ "Right!" She runs to him, because even though she knows it's going to be hard to use the Enchanted Sword, she believes that maybe her meister knows what he's doing._

_ And because she owes him a tremendous amount. He wouldn't believe it if she told him, but she knows to truth. So she's willing to risk any pain that might come out of using the Enchanted Sword mode before they're ready._

_ "Enchanted Sword Mode, let's go!"_

_ He lasts surprisingly long, but Tsubaki is so concentrated on not devouring or taking over his soul that she isn't able to catch him before he face-plants on the ground._

_ And as she transforms, all she can think is _or maybe he didn't know what he was doing.

_ But she knows, as she holds him and he complains that the times can never keep up with him, that they're actually both thinking back to the day they finally learned to use the kusarigama mode._

_ They both know they'll get the Enchanted Sword. It'll just take practice and incentive._

_It'll take determination._

* * *

><p><strong><em>AN: _**_So that's all for this chapter! Again, sorry it took so long!_

_I always wondered why there didn't really seem to be bullies in Shibusen. So I created some. :P I'm so mean..._

_Anyways, I don't see Tsubaki really standing up for herself in one of those situations, and I don't really see the Thomspon sisters taking much crap anyways (although they don't enroll until later anyways!). So really this was the best set up._

_And I really love that scene with the Enchanted Sword transformation. Makes my day, every day._

_So that's all for now! Hope you all enjoyed! (and I AM continuing to work on the next story as well, so don't worry, this should be posted in more regular time now)_

_Stay tuned! R&R!_

_~Rhythm Weaver~ _


	3. Jealousy

_**A/N: **Hi guys! I know it's been a while, but I just kept editing and editing and I still don't particularly think this one is my best. Still, it just needs to get out of the way so I may continue to get back into my updating cycle. I'm sorry this took so long! I feel terrible!_

_As always, the rest of the A/N is at the end. Enjoy!_

* * *

><p><em><strong>Black*Star #3: Jealousy<strong>_

_I need your grace to remind me_

_To find my own_

_~Chasing Cars; Snow Patrol_

_Jealousy: _

_ It's too ugly a word to describe how he feels toward his friends. He feels so protective of them; that word just doesn't seem to fit._

_ But that's exactly what it is. Jealousy._

Tsubaki knows that Black*Star would never in a million years begin to admit, or even mention the possibility, that he's jealous of anyone, much less his closest friends. She also knows that it's often a driving force in his life. She knows so much about him, but it's still only the basics.

He's jealous of Maka, for the loving family she has. His mind won't even begin to wrap around why she can't stand such an adoring father. He doesn't understand why, sometimes, a postcard isn't enough; that she needs more from her mother.

_** It's not just that. I don't get how she can play favorites. Isn't it enough to have two parents? It would be enough, for me, to have one! Why can't she just put up with her father's trips to Chupacabra's and enjoy the family that lives in her very school? Was I more ungrateful? Is that why God took away my parents?**_

_"Black*Star, look! I got another postcard from Mama!" He turns to see his friend running up to him, waving a thick rectangle of paper as she comes._

_ "Maka! How's my little girl today? I—" but Maka brushes past her father without a second glance._

_ The man breaks down, huddling in a corner and moaning about the daughter who refuses to acknowledge his existence. With a roll of his eyes, Sid leaves the young trainee to bring Spirit back to his senses._

_ Black*Star breaks another one of the boards the young teacher had set up with a bit more ferocity than necessary._

_ "Really? What's it say?"_

_ "She's doing good and she loves me."_

_ KRACK! Black*Star breaks another board. He's _never _had someone tell him they love him. He doesn't need that, though; a star as big as him can't be bogged down with sappy things like that!_

_ Maka's eyes light up with sudden inspiration._

_ "Hey, do you know kajukenbo form three?" Black*Star looks at her skeptically._

_ "Yeah. I've know it for a long time."_

_ "Great! 'Cuz I just learned it. Wanna practice all the ones up to three with me?"_

_ "Sure, but there's no way you'll be able to keep up with a god like me." There is a glint in Maka's eyes as he issues the challenge._

_ "We'll see."_

_ They fly through the forms, faster than either has ever done them before, and when they finish seconds later, Spirit is there praising his daughter with every compliment and kind word under the chortling sun._

_ Sid awkwardly claps Black*Star on the back, not quite knowing what to say but can see from the way Spirit's acting that he ought to do something for the boy._

_ Maka's expression is sour, though._

_ "If Mama were still here, she could've seen that."_

But you still get postcards, don't you? And your papa's right there, _Black*Star can't help but think bitterly._

He's jealous of Kid, because he was friends with Maka _first_. He doesn't mind Kid's joining in, but the young Reaper resonates better with Maka than he does. He doesn't understand why Kid wasn't content to live in his mansion with the two lovely demon pistols catering to his every whim and his obsession with symmetry.

_**Yeah, what's up with the symmetry thing? Trying to make the world perfect and orderly? Ha! How about settling for not killing an infant's entire clan, leaving the child to grow up as the last member, completely despised? Stupid Death Gods think they know best, do they? Why don't they see what's right in front of their faces? All they can do is steal friends and family!**_

_ Stein watches as, again and again, Kid and Maka's souls reject Black*Star's. He knows the boy, has heard enough stories about him from the staff that raised him, to know that this can only damage his soul. So he calls a break._

_ Once he comes back, though, things have only gotten worse. Maka has asked to exclude Black*Star from their resonance team, and the young assassin called her out on it. It has escalated to the point that Maka has run away, off to the roof of the school to get away from the lesson. Black*Star stands by, overwhelmed in envy for his best friends—the people in whose hands he'd place his soul in an instant, without hesitation._

_ Tsubaki whacks him lightly in the back of his head to bring him back to his senses. She hates seeing him like this._

_ "Sorry." Black*Star winces as he recognizes his misguided feelings. "Will you help me?"_

_ And Tsubaki does, because she knows her meister well enough to know that sometimes, he just can't help it. He feels forgotten by God and abandoned by his friends. This is why he wants to surpass God._

He's jealous of the demon pistols, Liz and Patti, for being delivered from their nightmare without having to do anything more than survive long enough for their knight in shining armor to show up. Why did he have to work for it when they just mugged every money-holding fool who showed his face too close to their corner?

_**Why did I have to be watched so closely for signs of kishin-type inclinations when they waltzed right into a Grim Reaper's house after a life of crime? So much supervision and so many tests on my soul to make sure it was still blue and healthy, not red and scaly. Why did God choose them and not me? I'm stronger, I'm better! Does God not use any form of logic?**_

_Black*Star groans into the darkness around him, remembering the events from earlier that day. He'd lost control of himself, the madness overtaking him, but no one had been surprised._

_ "Sid…Those eyes," Nygus had muttered, and Sid had nodded and said,_

_ "I know."_

_ They had both been expecting it. Why? Just because of the family he can't even remember?_

_ He can hear the Thompsons talking in low voices with Tsubaki right outside the door. They're worried about him, and they have the time to come and check up on him because Kid is busy fixing the roof._

None of them know how it feels! ARGH! _All the muscles that he's so carefully relaxed clench almost painfully in that one moment, but he doesn't care. He just hates how everyone was _right. _How they knew he would be the problem, and he was, even though he'd been so determined not to be._

_ Soft hands apply themselves to a push-pull motion on his back, kneading it until it begins to relax._

_ "It's going to be okay, Black*Star. I believe in you," his weapon whispers. He allows himself to relax. Maybe she's right._

He's jealous of Soul Eater, his best friend. He was born into a family that gave him all the piano lessons he could want, threw expensive parties and restaurants at him constantly. He was taught how to mingle and work the formal gatherings, but he throws all that away to sulk in a corner and be antisocial. He's musically talented and gets along with everyone.

_**I just never learned how to act at those formal things. I want to know, but it isn't like I'm going to **_**ask.**_** Soul just sits far away, avoiding the whole scene. Why would you do that if you know how to act? If you know that people will love your "cool," go-with-the-flow attitude, why wouldn't you take advantage of that? Why wasn't that knowledge given to someone who would actually take advantage of it? I would. Why didn't God give that know-how to ME?**_

_ "Here we go again." Maka rolls her eyes as Black*Star attacks the food table._

_ "Black*Star…Please…." Tsubaki motions for him to calm down. He doesn't listen, though. He's going to _rock _this party. He's going to be the star!_

_ But just as he's thinking he's getting the hang of this thing, Soul comes walking in from the balcony where he's been hiding._

_ "Dude, not cool," and saunters away to look for a bathroom._

_ Along the way, a gaggle of girls coo over him behind his back. The teachers nod appreciatively and even his own friends are watching as the white-haired scythe walks away._

_ "I'll never understand why he doesn't hang around and have fun." Liz comments. Patty laughs and Maka shrugs, but Tsubaki watches her meister._

_ Only she notices the pause in antics, the frustrated and envious glint in his eyes before he starts right back up where he left off. And she's the only one to recognize the lack of life behind his actions the rest of the night._

And he's jealous of Tsubaki, who's more than his best friend, she's his weapon partner. She knows that he's jealous. He's jealous that she still has a great father who is willing to host the two of them whenever they make a visit to Japan. He wishes he had a father who would pay the rent for the small house they live in. He's embarrassed that Tsubaki and her family provide _everything _for the two of them.

_**NO! I can't be jealous of Tsubaki! Jealousy implies that I want to have things that she has instead of letting her have them. I'm glad she's grown up happily, really!**_

_** But sometimes I wish that I had a life like Tsubaki's, without exchanging her happiness for mine. I wish I came from a family that was influential not through death and terror, but through noble blood. And I suppose it would have been nice to have a brother, but I wouldn't want to have to kill him. I would have if I had to, though. I could deal with that if that's what it took to have a family!**_

_** And I want to provide sometimes for us. But my wallet's always the empty one, because all the jobs I try to take on are just too small to hold a big guy like me. All I can do is kill kishin eggs and feed Tsubaki their souls, but all the missions we sign up for are way too small to handle me!**_

_ Black*Star and Tsubaki were coming back from yet another failed mission. And while Black*Star was prancing around as though his "show" had been a huge success, his weapon felt terribly depressed. At this rate, she was never going to become a Death Scythe._

_ "Hey, Tsubaki, what did you think of my performance? Wasn't it awesome?" She puts on her face, smiles nicely for him, and pretends to be proud._

_ "Yes, of course."_

_ "Yeah, that's right! Of course it was; 'cuz it always is! NYA HA HA!" he settles back into quiet for a few struts, then…_

_ "Seriously, Tsubaki. I'm gonna make you a Death Scythe, okay?" She smiles again, but it still doesn't reach her eyes._

_ "I know!" He walks ahead to hide his face from her. Only his weapon would be able to bring down his shinning attitude, he decides. He walks along, decidedly more resentful than he's been in a long time._

_ "Hey, Black*Star."_

_ He turns, only to catch a snowball in the face._

_ "Wha?" He whips his head back and forth, simultaneously looking for the enemy and checking to make sure Tsubaki's okay, because she is the number one priority._

_ But when he does he only finds a black-haired girl with a high ponytail stifling laughter behind her hand._

_ And then he figures it out. It was _her_._

_ "Hey!" He makes his own snowballs at godly speed and chucks them at her. _

_ They return home sopping wet, freezing cold, and totally reconciled._

_** I guess what I'm saying is I wish….I wish…**_

_**I wish God had remembered me.**_

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><p><em><strong><strong>So, that's it guys. Let me know what you thought! Next one will be coming out next week, no question asked, debates suggested, or excuses made. Promise! It's all ready to go!_

_I'll see y'all then!_

_~Rhythm Weaver~_


	4. We All Need Somebody to Lean On

_**A/N **I'm sorry it's been so long! I've barely touched my computer all summer, but now that school's starting back up I'll definitely be writing more! Because procrastination is totally the name of the game. Anyways, as I sit here doing "homework" I present you with Complexity chapter 4. Enjoy!_

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><p><em><strong>Black*Star #4: "We All Need Somebody to Lean On"<strong>_

_Keep me safe inside_

_Your arms like towers_

_Tower over me_

_Yeah,_

'_Cause we are broken._

_~We Are Broken; Paramore_

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><p><em>Prelude:<em>

_They're connected on a much deeper emotional level than most people realize. Sure, he's loud and obnoxious, but he has things in his past and reasons in his present that make him that way. And sure, she never really disagrees with him, she always goes with the flow, but that doesn't mean she never speaks her mind. _

_They confide in each other; others just don't see that part._

* * *

><p><em><strong>Tsubaki <strong>__knows that her meister is the strongest, most capable person in her circle of friends, and probably in the entire school. He may have a big mouth, but she knows any secret she tells him will remain between the two of them until the day he dies. She knows that, no matter what, he's there for her to confess to._

_She can lean on him when she needs someone strong to hold her up._

She tiptoes out to the living area. It's nearing 2:30 in the morning, but she needs to do something to keep her mind away from the images it keeps throwing at her. She can't sleep, and she just can't stand to see her brother's face in her nightmares anymore. Maybe she can watch TV.

His assassin's hearing wakes him, but by the time he actually forces himself to sit up and rub the sleep from his eyes she's already dripping silent tears as she sits on the couch arm by his feet. He had fallen asleep watching the TV, but Tsubaki must have turned it off when she came into the room because now the only sound for miles is the faint chirping of a single cricket.

"Yo, what's wrong?" He scoots up to kneel on the other end of the couch and stuff his face between her down-turned one and the cushions. She moves back, surprised by his sudden proximity.

"I'm sorry I woke you, Black*Star. Go back to sleep; I'm fine. I'll leave." She moves to leave, but his arm darts out.

"Tsubaki…" he pauses before continuing, "Don't forget you can depend on me. I've told you once, and now I'll tell you again: I swear I'll be there for you." She sits back down. She knows it's time to talk—has been since midnight—and she's so relieved that he's prepared to listen. He smiles at her.

"Remember when you told me we could talk once I straightened everything out? I think I'm ready now," she speaks quietly, the darkness of the room playing directly into the volume of both their voices.

"Okay," is Black*Star's awkward response. He scratches the back of his neck. He really doesn't know how to deal with emotional girls; he supposes he's a bit like Crona that way.

"You already know he was my brother, right?" Her voice is shaky, but she's confident that now is the time to have this conversation with him.

He nods, not really trusting himself to speak again in the quiet room. All that matters for the next hour-and-a-half is Tsubaki's voice as it weaves around the cricket's lonely song.

"He understood in the end, but there was no way to save him. It just doesn't make sense!" Her eyes are filled with half-angry, half-grieving tears. "Why, Black*Star? He could have lived a good life from then on! It just…it just isn't fair!" she is sobbing into his shoulder now, unable to stifle the tears.

With her head on his thick, unyielding shoulder, he can't help but remember his own time of coming-to-terms.

"_What du'ya mean I can't go home for Summer Break, Sid?" the little boy looks up at the teacher towering over him. The man is barely old enough to have a teaching position, yet he's stuck here, tending to this over-difficult child._

"_You are home. You never left; technically, Shibusen is your home," Sid tries to explain it on a four-year-old's level, but it doesn't register with the kid._

"_No it's not! Home is where your mama and your papa are; that's what Maka told me!"_

_That little girl, while still not as hard to handle as the rebellious young assassin, was still more trouble than she was worth._

"_That's what most kids call home, but there are many different kinds of homes. You're different, Black*Star: you live in a school. Not many children have _that _kind of opportunity!" Sid tries to put a positive spin on the situation, but it's pretty nearly impossible. He does an admirable job of it, considering the circumstances, but it still doesn't satisfy the little meister._

"_That's not fair! I want to live with my mama and papa! I do, I do, I do! Why can't I? It's not fair! Not fair, not fair, not fair!"_

Then, without really knowing exactly what snapped inside him, Black*Star is holding his weapon partner close, promising her a world of growth. He can't throw false promises of never hurting or constant joy, but he can promise to always be there. He can promise to help her learn from the pain, the way he's begun to.

He clutches her to his chest, vowing that she will always have a home with him, as they cry on each other's shoulders.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Black*Star <strong>__knows that he can always tell his weapon partner what's on his mind. He doesn't have to convince her that he's going to surpass God some day; she already knows it. He doesn't need to keep up that tough-guy attitude in front of her, because she won't think any less of him if he doesn't._

_He can talk to her when something's wrong._

_Like that time when he fought Mifune for Maka:_

"Tsubaki?" He's leaning in her doorway, relieved to have gotten there at last. She looks up from the bandage she's wrapping around her ankle and immediately knows that something is incredibly wrong with her meister.

She is on her feet in a moment and half-dragging, half-carrying him over to sit on her bed. She knows how many injuries he has, knows how badly it must hurt to walk; she had felt his muscles tense and spasm every time the samurai landed a blow.

As soon as she's made sure he's as comfortable as he can be, she sits beside him and waits. He'll talk when he's ready.

The blue-haired assassin fidgets, staring at his hands as his bruised elbows rest on his cut knees. Tsubaki gently places one of her hands over both of his clenched ones.

"Tell me, truthfully. Why didn't you leave me after we dealt with Masimune?" he is motionless now, not even blinking: he's just staring, staring, at those damaged hands.

"Why would I do that?" Tsubaki whispers. She knows her meister, and so she knows he would never _want _her to leave. The only option is that he thinks _she _might want to leave.

She can't deny that she thought about it, even dreamed a little about being free from the incredibly over-demanding, clingy child. But, God, she was so _sorry _for that! However many times she'd dreamed about leaving him, she nearly cried from nightmares of _him_ leaving _her_. The knowledge that she had ever thought kindly about abandoning him haunted her for days after she first thought it.

"You thought about it; you hesitated when I asked you, right after we killed him, if you planned on staying my weapon." She is about to cut in, but his quietly unrelenting voice won't stop for anyone, even her. "Do you really think I'll ever be able to turn you into a Death Scythe? We have one soul Tsubaki: _one. _And it's the one _you _fought for." She listens in horror as he takes a deep, shaky breath.

"You don't need _me._"

She can't take it anymore. It's too bad that he's bruised and hurt, but there only ever seems to be one way to get through to this boy, and she refuses to let him feel so self-deprecating any longer than he already has.

So she smacks him in the back of the head.

Hard enough so that there's no doubt in her mind that he'll come back to his senses ten-times over.

"Black*Star, I would _never _leave you. You're…you're one of a kind. I could never find another meister like you." She means it lovingly, but he doesn't see it that way.

"Yeah, it's like everyone says. 'It's Black*Star, he's "unique"', or 'Black*Star's the "special" meister'." His head sinks to rest on her hand, on his hands. In his hands in her hand; in her hand on his hands.

"No, Black*Star!" She can't even think of what to say to that. She's so taken-aback that he would think something like that about her, that she can't think of how to respond.

But that's okay, he actually understands. He waits for her this time.

"I…I meant that I could never find another meister who would…who would brighten things up the way you do." She shakes her head. "I don't know how to explain it, not really. Something like a partnership as great as ours or soul resonance can't truly be explained in words.

"What I'm saying is that even if I found your perfect duplicate, your exact clone, I wouldn't switch meisters. And even if I found your calmer, more soul-collection-focused twin I wouldn't change meisters."

"ARGH!" he cries out. She's startled, worried that she's jarred one of his broken bones, but that's not the problem. It's not physical pain that's attacking him, it's emotional.

"Black*Star…?!"

"I…I just…I just don't know anymore! I don't know who I am anymore! Am I still Black*Star, great assassin, if _everyone's _telling me I can't keep my mouth shut?! Am I still Black*Star, man who will surpass God, if I can't even collect a single soul?!"

He finally looks up at her, his eyes possessed by fear and heart-tearing confusion. He sits there, breathing heavily in terror and near-desperation. She waits for him to calm down, focusing on keeping her own eyes clear of worry or unhappiness, allowing him to believe, if only for a second, that she knows that everything will turn out for the best and she's serenely at peace with the outcome.

"Tsubaki, what do you see when you look at me?" The question is curious. It holds none of the previous panic. Still, she chooses her words with care. It would be indescribably cruel of her to allow him to misunderstand the next words of her.

"I see Black*Star, man who chooses what he is and will become."

* * *

><p><strong><em>AN_**_So there you have it. Watch next week for Chapter 5, the final installment of Complexity until I come out with Maka and Soul's "Fusion" installment. I swear I'll ACTUALLY get it up on time now that school's going and all. I love you guys! Don't forget to review!_

_~Rhythm Weaver~_


	5. AN Don't worry, I'm not giving up!

**A/N**

****I am very very very sorry I haven't uploaded yet. There has been a problem with my computer's hard drive and I haven't been able to get past the welcome screen until the hard drive got replaced earlier today. My computer is still only semi-functional, but I should be able to upload to fanfic (this is the test). My dad is taking the old hard drive to a computer tech later tonight. There is a 50/50 chance all my files are gone (in which case I will completely have to rewrite the rest of this story). It the documents are there and it doesn't take the technicion more than a day to get the files off, I will upload later tonight. Regardless, I will update later and give you all a status report on where things stand.

Again, I'm sorry, and I really really really hope my documents aren't lost. It would REALLY suck.

Until later tonight,

~Rhythm Weaver~


	6. With Stars in His Eyes

_**A/N** _Sorry it's been a while! I now have an automatic back-up system so that I'll never lose my files again. No worries! Go ahead and start; I'll see you at the end of the chapter in the bottom A/N! Don't forget to stay tuned for the last in the Fusion series, centered around Maka and Soul!

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><p><strong><span>Just a few things you should know before you read this:<span>**

1) This chapter takes place a while after the others. It's similar to how I did the first story in this Fusion collection (Admiration). This happens as the Kishin's madness is spreading and beginning to affect those who are most susceptible to it.

2) Also, there is a special effect in the way I wrote Black*Star's dialogue in this chapter. It took forever, but I feel that it gets the point across nicely.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Black*Star #5: With Stars in His Eyes<strong>_

_We'll walk this road together, through the storm_

_Whatever weather, cold or warm_

_Just let you know that, you're not alone_

_~Not Afraid; Eminem_

* * *

><p>"…Black*Star?"<p>

She hates it when the madness would strike him like this. How dare it tear her meister to pieces like this? Hasn't he been through enough already? Did it really have to try so hard to destroy him?!

"_**T**_S_**U**_B_**A**_K_**I**_…" His voice is distorted and gargled, grotesque and mutilated. She sits on the floor, next to the table where he collapsed before his fork touched his dinner. Now he's just lying there, hands clenching and unclenching, face down, fighting off the demons. He is resisting the illusions only he can see. She reaches out to place her hand on his shoulder, but removes it when he flinches violently, shying away from her touch.

"_**D**_O_**N**_'T! _**G**_E_**T **_B_**A**_C_**K**_!" His body spasms painfully from the energy spent in movement and speech, convulsing, fighting that terrible thing that threatens to overtake him.

"I'm sorry," she apologizes for making it harder on him. She wants to do something, _anything, _to help him, but it isn't as though he's in any condition to tell her what would actually do some good. Shouldn't she _know? _She's his weapon for God's sake!

"_**G**_O! _**I **_D_**O**_N'_**T**_ W_**A**_N_**T**_ T_**O **_H_**U**_R_**T**_ Y_**O**_U!" He heaves his face off the ground so that he is on all fours and can breathe more easily. But he doesn't truly breathe in the full sense of the word: he pants short puffs of air in and out. Tsubaki can't help but wonder how much of that air actually ever reaches his lungs.

"Don't worry about me. If it comes to that, I won't let you hurt me." She knows that she may not, and most likely _will _not, be able to fulfill that promise. She expects that in his current state, though, he will accept it for the truth. He always takes everything she says as truth when he's like this; he has no other choice.

Decisions and discernments require a presence of mind, however slight. He doesn't have the sanity to think for himself.

What he does next breaks Tsubaki's heart; he makes a sound that she never thought she'd hear from her spunky, give-it-your-250% meister. From the strongest, surest, most confident person that she can think of, comes a sound of brokenness and failure.

He whimpers in terror and pain.

She reaches out to him with the utmost care, terrified of making this ordeal any worse for him than it already is, yet determined to make it easier. She places her hand gently on his back and begins to rub it softly.

It's so sad the way he looks back frantically to make sure it's real. His whole body heaves again, and he looks at something in wide-eyed terror that's over his weapon partner's shoulder.

There's nothing there but the kitchen counter.

He stares for a few seconds, horrified, and then his eyes are enveloped in spinning stars of madness.

"P_**L**_E_**A**_S_**E**_, G_**O**_D, _**N**_O." She keeps rubbing his tensing muscles as whatever he sees drags him further into the insanity. To call to a God he despises, he must be completely frantic; he must be totally out of his mind in panic.

"G_**O**_D, _**Y**_O_**U**_ M_**A**_Y _**H**_A_**V**_E _**F**_O_**R**_G_**O**_T_**T**_E_**N**_ M_**E**_, B_**U**_T _**I**_ K_**N**_O_**W**_ Y_**O**_U _**S**_T_**I**_L_**L**_ C_**A**_R_**E**_ A_**B**_O_**U**_T _**T**_S_**U**_B_**A**_K_**I**_!" he cries out, head thrown back to scream at the ceiling. Tsubaki freezes. What is the tortured boy seeing?

"N_**O**_!" he screeches. Tsubaki finally comes back to her senses. She grabs the boy's grief-ridden face and yanks it around so that he faces her full on. She doesn't care about the dangers she's been warned about: that when he's like this he could mistake her for anyone, even the kishin himself; he won't hold back if he sees something that isn't there, he _will _attack without any recognition of who she is.

She's been warned time and again by her friends, her teachers, Lord Death, and even Black*Star himself.

She. Doesn't. Care.

"Black*Star, I'm right here! I'm fine! Don't you see me?" She hugs his face against her neck. "Please, Black*Star, don't you see that I'm okay?" She thinks she's gotten through to him, but it's only taking a few seconds for him to kick her across the room.

"Y_**O**_U _**D**_I_**D**_ T_**H**_I_**S**_!" he accuses, screaming and pointing to the floor, motioning to something that only he sees. "Y_**O**_U'_**R**_E _**T**_H_**E**_ R_**E**_A_**S**_O_**N**_ T_**S**_U_**B**_A**K**I'_**S**_ L_**Y**_I_**N**_G _**T**_H_**E**_R_**E**_!"

"Black*Star, that's not me!" But it doesn't matter what she says, he doesn't hear her.

"I'_**L**_L _**K**_I_**L**_L _**Y**_O_**U**_, Y_**O**_U _**W**_O_**R**_T_**H**_L_**E**_S_**S**_,T_**I**_N_**Y **_P_**I**_E_**C**_E _**O**_F _**S**_C_**U**_Z!" He runs at her, planting his hands in the middle of her chest to deliver his Black*Star Big Wave.

She knows that if she lets him do that, if she succumbs to her meister's mindless wishes, it'll kill him when he washes the stars from his eyes. And she knows that, as his weapon, it's her duty to prevent him from running out of this house and hurting anyone else. If she doesn't stop him, the chances of him doing just that are enormous.

She gathers her strength and kicks him, exactly the way he did to her, and he flies backward across the table, dragging the tablecloth with him and dumping their dinners on the floor. Tsubaki doesn't care; she'll clean it up later, just like when he decides to practice indoors and breaks something. _It's just practice, _she lies to herself. Maybe, if she doesn't truly believe this is actually happening, she can complete her task. _Just practice, just practice, practicepracticepracticeprac tice…_

He lands on the floor, but as soon as he looks at her with those star-eyes, she knows he's still not himself. He's still under the insanity's control as it dances in his eyes, spinning the stars in endless, meaningless circles. Running nowhere, like a tiger in the zoo that paces around and around in its pen, it's inevitable…

He growls viciously, animalistic, and it brings her back to herself.

She will _not _give in when Black*Star has no one else to depend on. He _needs _her right now; this is the _least _she can do for the boy who's given her a whole new life!

She doesn't give him the chance to rise. She races over, picks him up by the shoulders, and slams him into the wall so hard the plaster cracks. She notices, in absolute delirium, that the cracks almost make a five-point star.

But it's not laughing, spinning, dancing;

_ Leering, lashing, lunging;_

_ Stabbing, severing, slaughtering;_

_ Demented, deranged, dying._

"Black*Star, don't let the madness take me too!" she begs, shaking her head in an attempt to rid herself of the thoughts not her own. The thoughts aren't going anywhere, though: they're sewn in place with stitches of insanity. And he's glaring at her with a hatred—a loathing—that words can't possibly even begin to describe.

And the stars zip around, never gaining ground, always turning in those same circles. Will they keep rotating forever?

She is beginning to lose faith in her once strong resolve.

"Black*Star, you _PROMISED ME!" _she gives one last try, pleading with him to stop, to remember, to see that the girl kneeling here in front of him is the weapon partner he'd sworn to protect.

The eyes do not change, but they mock her. They twirl merrily as they taunt her.

_You will never smile again. You will never dance again. You will never laugh again…_

He leans closer, a wide, mad smile spreading across his lips.

_Never hug again, never comfort again, never play basketball again…_

Their mouths are at each other's ears as his hand draws back, crackling with his wavelength.

_Or clap for him again, or fight his foes again, or cook for him again…_

With what she believes to be her last seconds alive, she grips his shoulders as tightly as she can.

_Nor trust him, nor stand proudly by his side, nor eat the souls he provides…_

And with what she believes to be her last words, she whispers in his ear:

"You are not to blame, Black*Star. Surpass God for me someday."

_But you will watch over him from another place, you will long for him, you will miss him terribly…_

Those words are what finally bring him back to his senses. He slumps down, out of her hands, his eyes their natural, round shape once more.

"Tsubaki…" He shakes his head in shame. "I…I'm so sorry." She sits next to him. She's still shaky, but she can't even start to fathom how he must feel.

She had been prepared to die, but he had been prepared to kill.

"I'm fine," she murmurs. She's searching for ways to cheer him up when she comes across the bump on the back of his head; the one she caused.

"Could it be," she smiles, "that I'm stronger than the man who will surpass God?"

Black*Star leaps to his feet.

"_Never!" _He looks around the room for some inspiration for a contest of strength. His eyes land on the table that was swept clean as he slid across it.

"You, me, kitchen table. Right now: arm-wrestling." In a flash, he's sitting in one of the kitchen chairs; he never even considers giving her the chance to decline. She goes over and puts her hand in his and her elbow on the table, just to humor him.

He wins, of course.

But when he slams her hand down on the table victoriously, he holds it there for a few extra seconds and squeezes it gently.

"Thanks, Tsubaki," she just barely hears him whisper. But she's pretty sure he's only saying those words for himself, so she doesn't comment.

Instead, she just squeezes back.

* * *

><p><strong><em>AN _**_So there it is, the last chapter of Complexity! It's been a great run and I've really enjoyed this one. Next up, as you all know, is the last in the Fusion collection (If you don't understand what I'm talking about go check out my profile, there's an explanation there) centered around Maka and Soul. I have the first chapter in the editing process already!_

_I would like to point out that very few people are commenting. I hate it when writer's push to get their work commented on, but honestly guys? This is kinda sad. Put in more of an effort._

_That's all! Can't wait until the next Fusion comes out! (Shouldn't be too long now that my computer's back in working order!)_

_~Rhythm Weaver~_


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